Tuesday, January 19, 2010

IVF and Acupuncture

My acupuncturist has made the switch from the treatment plan she has had me on to focus full board on the IVF. That means preparing my body to handle the drugs I will be on, and to help me be as fertile as possible.

I showed up today, and this time she had me lay on my stomach so she could do mostly points on my back and legs. The uterus attaches to the body at one point – the lower back. (This is why pregnant women have so much back pain. All that weight is concentrated on the one point!) This is why she did needles there today. Then – and get this – after she had the needles in my back and legs, she hooked up some electrodes to the needles themselves! I laid there while she turned up the juice until I could feel it! Oh my goodness!!! She said that I needed to be able to feel it, but not have it be so intense that I can't sleep. (After they stick you, they leave you with the needles in the dark, warm, quiet room for about 30 minutes. It is best if you can sleep, because it means you are totally relaxed and it gives the needles the best possible chance of doing it's thing). Adding in the electrodes made me completely nervous at first. I have to say that she did it very slowly, and when it went too high, it felt ticklish or like a light sting, depending on the point. I have done natural childbirth before, so really, this was nothing in comparison. It just scared me because it was electricity going through my body. When we settled on the proper dosages, it felt like of like a feather-light hum or vibration. And I did sleep.

After everything I have done with this woman so far, I trust her completely, and her odds with this particular therapy are good. 26% of her IVF patients never have to do multiple rounds of IVF treatments. They get pregnant on the first try. (Most women have to do on average 2.5 rounds of implantation before it takes!) They also experience far less of the side effects that all those hormones cause. That's worth it to me.

To add onto my hippie-earth-mama stuff, I have been contemplating hypnosis therapy to keep the stress hormones under control during all of this. My old pre-natal yoga teacher does it, and as much as the doctor at the genetics lab went on and on over how much stress can negatively impact your success rates, I think it is worth considering. This would just be once a week, and this is another person I think the world of and believe in. I want to give this the best possible chance that I can, so why not?